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649 
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THANKSGIVING SERMON 



IB3T 



/ 



Rev. JOSEPH R. WHEELER, 



Pastor of the Meth. Epis. Church, 



^ULIEIKZ.A.ILTIDIEaZ^ VA. 



Delivered November 29, 1866. 




PRINTED AT THE "VIRGINIA STATE JOURNAL" JOB OFFICE, 
ALEXANDRIA, VA. 



■Id 5* 



THANKSGIVING SER 



"The children of Issachar, which were tnen that had understanding of 
the times, to know what Israel ought to do. — 1 Chronicles 12: 32. 

This is high commendation which the sacred historian 
bestows upon these men, who had joined themselves to David 
in order to strengthen the kingdom under him. The value of 
such men is incalculable to any people in which they are 
found, and it is not the least among the subjects for thanks- 
giving, that the great Ruler of nations raises up from time to 
time 'those who are capable of directing the affairs of State. 

In our country, where free institutions are found in their 
most perfect forms, every man is responsible for the condition 
of the country. It may be admitted that the leaders directly 
control; but, since the leaders derive their positions from, and 
are sustained in their positions by the people, the assertion is 
incontrovertible that the people are directly responsible for the 
conduct of the leaders, by which the condition of the country is 
superinduced. Recognizing our responsibility to God in this 
matter, as well as all others, it becomes us as Christians to un- 
derstand the times, that we may intelligently meet our obliga- 
tions, and be clear when we are judged. And I think we shall 
render unto God a more acceptable sacrifice of praise if in our 
days of national thanksgiving, we join to our gratitude for mer- 
cies past, a sincere effort to learn what he would yet have us to 
do, that we may go forth to labor in accordance with the will 
of God. 

Our view of duty determines our Mctian^rnd it is of the 




firs! importance that we see our duty as based on moral and 
religious grounds. We propose on this day of national grati- 
tude to enquire what is our duty as a Church in relation to the 
times. In this enquiry, we shall be greatly assisted by ascer- 
taining the relation of the Church to the world. This will be 
absolutely accessary, because latterly some latitude have 

most shamefully misrepresented that relation, and have by their 
teachings given prevalence and power to a hen y which has 
led many into an error which is but little less than infidelity. 

As far as we are able to form an opinion, we think that 
those alliances by which the Church is made a pari of the State 
find no warrant in the Sacred Scriptures. Nowhere is it recog- 
nized in tin; New Testament that the Church shall be a part of 
the machinery of the government. Her mission is much higher 
and more grand than this. While she may not form a pari she 
must pervade every department, and by Divine influences ele- 
vate and purify. Her free and untrammeled working depends 
upon her being kept separate from and independent of the State. 

The first important truth to which we call a ion in this 

enquiry, is that the Church is the only represen • God has 
in the world. 

It is not to be supposed that in as important a province as 
this world forms in the Empire of God, that He would leave 
himself without some representation. Something which shall 
declare His sovreignty, and which shall teach His laws. If he 
were to be thus unrepresented, the. world would be abandoned 
of its Creator, and He would have no authority over it. Where 
do we find but in the Church the living power which thus testi- 
fies of the great Governor ? Where any ion which shows 
His care over the intelligent beings He has placed here? Or 
where any declaration that He desires their well-being ? 
has, therefore, or i the Church to bear witness of Him, 
and sent her forth on her mission, ! lim the Truth, and 
defend it. She is to urge God's claim upon men. and hoL 
to their responsibility to Him, in every act of their life. She 



is to insisl upon the application of God's law to every subject, 
and every question that presents itself to man for his action- 
Her authority is to arraign everything ai the bar of Truth, and 
there to try them. Xations and their rulers, with I :' ; '- princi- 
ples and practices, b r the same relation to her as the individ- 
ual conduct of the private citizen. And wherever she see* sin 
or error, she mast denounce it, or be recreant to her high \\ 
ardship. She must so represent God, that men in all their 
relations, associations and conduct, shall feel that in every and 
all of their acts they are directly amenable to the Great Jeho- 
vah! If the Church docs not do this, what agency or ins 
tion on earth docs do it ? 

Again ; God has commit led (he gospel of Jesus Christ to the 
Church. She is charged with the spread and the final triumph 
of the religion of Jesus over all the earth. 

This gospei is (lie only remedial system for the evils of the 
world. Whatever evil there is in the world, ii has been occa- 
sioned by sin, and with the removal of sin the evils svil] dis- 
appear. The various forms of suffering from oppression, ci uelty, 
inhumanity and selfishness, must all yield vvhe i aen sh 
actuated by the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. U is 
a glory which shines with a divine lustre around the history of 
the Christian Church, that her course has been one of so much 
benificence to mankind. We point with unhesitating confidence 
to this feature of her history, and challenge co tradiction. 
Wherever she has been established the masses have felt her 
quickening power, and have risen redeemed and ennobled; 
nations have laid aside their oppressions, and assumed a mi! ler 
rule, while "man's inhumanity to man" has given place to 
brotherly kindness. 

We mean by the Church here, not any particular denomina- 
tion, but all who love our Lord Jesus Chris! in sincerity, and 
who make T J is glory their sole standard and motive. These all 
themselves having put on Christ, are now actively engaged, in the 
labor of bringing in the universal reign of righteousness. : iiis 



will be done when Christians of all classes hall impress upon 
the circle in which they move Iheii own purity and holi- 
ness. The statesman in the halls of legislation, and the collier 
in the black bowels of (he earth ; the ruler directing the affairs 
of state, and the farmer, and the merchant, and the artizan; 
the man out of doors, and the v oraan in uiet sphere of do- 

mestic life, shall each infuse into his and her department the 
spirit "which was also in J ssus." 

This, I think., gives lis a of the relation of 

the Church to the world for ■ 

this in <mr mind w< i all youi :. v T hat we consider a 

fearful heresy which ha: reec ", z;real favor with 

multitudes in our country. ■' is - - 1 that there must be 
".no politics us niE i LPiT." If I were meant that 

such speeches as are generally deln ei ;-d at our political gather- 
-such as are the purely an appeals made at our mass 

meetings, no objecti* vould ! tarter. But 

when this is proclaimed to i 11 it the moral aspects of po- 

litic. - ;! questions sn.-dl m> : h Lbj ; ;: the scrutiny of a pulpit 
investigation, if is an e ' i • to p ss unnoticed. 

And let it be remembered al " ' I only political questions 
must not be alluded to, h nieiit and 

rulers must be inte lieto:!. /. evil could not 

threaten the life of a i gives 

political tonic- exemp P • Why are 

party prineipL n ' pa tyquesti _ forth as il 

sis of action for 1' ' ' of God? 

Are the actions of men i , '' ' tl y are of 
cal character? And bo 5 shall adopt 

a question upon which 1 , . > oy a theory upon 

which to stake a party tri pi they tl be wholly 

absolved from any sc " ' ■ of their 

theories — and as Ion, pi " theo- 

ries, has God nor , > no juri liction over 

them, nor any right to 1 ' ■!? 



We can very well understand why this error is broached. 
When men see that their party success depends u] on blinding 
others to the tiuth, their attempt is fust to muzzle the pulpit. 
And if the sacred desk utters its warning against the iniquity 
of such men, they throw up theii hands in well dissembled 
horror at the perversion of the sacred office. Satan charging 
God with perversion when the Devil is unmasked ! T/iit shall 
we cower before their outcry, and be intimidated !>;, :! eii cla- 
mor? No. li' politicians dare to sin, let them be as unscath- 
ingly rebuked as when any other sinner is repro d for 
gressions. The church should U\ to prevent sin in publii 
as well as in private, and of all ministers of God and congre- 
gations of ili> people in our land, none do erve more, if as much, 
from this nation than Flenr Ward Beecher and Plynn 
church. 

There is no truth more manifest than tin t thos< 
using this cry are either deceivers or deceived. It ha ■' thoi 
to its last resurrection when Stephen A. Don 
have that iniquitous bill which proposed the repeal o1 
souri Compromise, passed. That compromise had rj 
sections, and the North abided by it for years to their <" 
vantage. The South was not in condition to avail the.] ; 

of any benefit or to suffer any loss from its exi \t as 

soon as the time came when a benefit n its 

violation, the South, with that n ! I sne ■ ' wh'ch 

is preeminently the spirt of secession, sought wry. 

Then, because three thousand ministers ente ed the'r ] 
against it, and from a religious stand point d ' m 

iniquity, this Senator calumniously chat id th ' iving 

their holy calling and contaminating themselves w.'tl 
of politics. Ah yes, he saw it was to aw; ken th : w e 

of the people against his pet scheme. It would nrou ' ; ! 
ligous convictions of the nation against the hobby upon winch 
he hoped to ride into the Presidential chair, and I 
them. He saw their right and truth and cord insry 



6 

their assertion. Eence it suited him to attack their act and 
eharge them with the degradation and perversion of their holy 
calling. As well might I have said that they left their holy 
calling and contaminated themselves with filthy revels of bar- 
rooms and brothels because they declared such places were in- 
famous and sinful. Was it not their place, as watchmen on the 
wails of Zion, to give the nation warning of the intend* d wrong? 
And was ii not rather proof of their fearless zeal in their sacred 
office that they dared to denounce sin, even when ^.}^\i in the 
Senate Chamber of the United Stales? If they had been si- 
lent, they would have been unfaithfnl to God who had placed 
them in their high trust., and would have proven themselves 
unworthy the cause they were set to defend. 

We might well enquire, had these men no rights or privi- 
leges as American citizens? Had they forfeited all their inte- 
rest in their nation except to be protected by it, because God 
had called them to the work of the ministry? Was patriotism, 
which prompts others to feel a lively interest in the affairs of 
government, a, virtue in a Senator and a crime in a- clergyman? 
We may well ask such questions as these in unfeigned amaze- 
ment, when we see how such demagogues would thrust aside 
holy men because they rebuke their sin. 

But its last resurrection was when our arms had been vic- 
torious and the rebellion crushed. Those who had made the 
heavens ring, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, with their 
political ravings, now that they did not dare to preach as they 
had just done, raised the old outcry, the Church must be free 
from politics, t was told of one who, on a Sabbath morning, 
in a church in the Valley of Virginia, in the year 1861, with 
the altar table below him, on which was spread the elements 
which were to be used as emblems of the broken body and shed 
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, delivered such a partizan ha- 
rangue that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper had to be post- 
poned until the following day — a week day. It does seem 
strange that those who so recently used their pulpits as agen- 



cies in the interests of the Rebellion, should so suddenly be 
converted, and find bow dreadfully wrong it is even to pray for 
the nation they could not destroy. It would have hem well if 
their conversion had been a little more I liorougli and made tin ra 
see the sin of treason as well as the sin of pn i it. 

Who cannot see that lids is n mean and igi nbterfuge. 

It is simply — we can't preach and pray for oar side, and there 
ought not to be any preaching and praying on tin ' ct. I 
remember a story of a chicken and a horse Feeding at the same 
place. While the horse fed from the trough, tin chiek< n pick- 
ed up the grains that fell on the floor. The st; mping of (lie 
horse kept the chicken in constant alarm, and final!}' lie pro- 
posed to make this bargain with the horse. "If you will not 
tread on my toes, Mr. horse. I will not tread on yours." 

In the consciousness that their day has past, aial their 
cause can only he sustained by this popular outcry, they have 
not hesitated to adopt it, and bishops an;! elders and deacons 
unite in serving the devil and infidelity — and there are many 
timid and weak minded persons who are greatly alarmed. They 
fail to see the true principle, and to take their stand upon it, 
fearless of the consequences. These take the amount of cla- 
mor which is made, for weight of argument, and aie disposed 
to yield their conscience to it. This is a new feature in the 
history of the Church. We have indeed, learned another gospel 
if it is the prerogative of ungodly men and disappointed mal- 
contents to assign the Church her duty, and prescribe what she 
shall preach. We did not receive our commission from men, 
nor the truth from conventions, nor are we now to be frighten- 
ed hy clamorous error. 

I do not propose that any of us should become politicians. 
I should earnestly urge every man against being a, demagogue. 
As conscientious men we could not do so. Here is where we 
ougt to stand. We are set for the defense of the truth. We 
should have no political principles apart from our religious convic- 
tions. We ought to carry with us in all our political as well as 



other actions our sense of responsibility to God. We ought to 
entertain no opinions excepl such as we believe, after the. most 
patient prayer, are approved by the Gospel and its author. 
Our consciences, as instructed by the Word of Truth, must fully 
approve all our political principles, and then we shall not be 
afraid to meet them at the general judgment. Then can we 
enter the arena of political strife with every guarantee of suc- 
cess. Keeling that we are right, we have a host of strength in 
■ourselves. One or two defeats are nothing. We are right and 
the right must triumph. We may then mingle in the contests 
of political life. We ought to enter the arena where political 
conflicts are fought. What ever the corruption of the men en- 
gaged in those struggles, that need not affect us any more than 
the corruptions of men in other spheres of action with whom 
we have to come in contact. We need not become corrupt, but 
we may and will purify. We carry our purity as Christians 
and holiness as servants of God with us, and become moral dis- 
infectants. If politics are to be separated from morality and 
religion,, then indeed would it be wrong for us to engage in po- 
litical affairs. They would be abandoned of God and good 
men. As Christians we ought to determine such shall not be 
the case, and struggle on faithfully and fearlessly for God and 
humanity. 

This is the method by which God will introduce the triumph 
of the Gospel. The whole political power of this world shall 
be possessed by those who are the people of God. This is no 
visionary idea, but the sober truth. God, as the great Ruler, 
does not intend that evil and sin shall forever rule on the earth. 
The clearest declarations of prophecy point to the time when 
"the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our 
God and his Christ." The prophet Daniel declares : "The 
kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom 
under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the 
saints of the Most High." This glorious result is not to burst 
upon the world suddenly, but will be brought in by the gradual 



9 

conquests which arc now being achieved by principles of the 
Gospel. 

It is indeed time that the affairs of our country were taken 
out of the hands of men who s:o to their inauguration into hiali 
ofliees intoxicated, or who ire professional gamblers and prize 
fighters. It is n burning shame upon us that wicked men, and 
men whose principles are abandoned of good, slum] ! make and 
execute the laws of a Christian nation; and (he only way in 
which we can correct it i-- by combining as religious men, and 
ex ertjOur influence as churches, to require that men who are 
entrusted with high pjfices shall be men of as mi cli uprightness 
and integrity as when we entrust them with our private busi- 
ness. We would not make gambler^ and drunkards our com- 
mercial agents, and yet wo make them Senators and Represen- 
tatives. It is to me a s mrcc of devout thanksgiving that I 
belong to a Church that has dared to arraign political evils and 
denounce (hem. I rejoice that the grand honors of the nation 
rest on her brow for having enrty tin own herself into the bat- 
tle for human liberty ; and when called to vindicate her adhe- 
rence to the cause of free lorn she sent 100,000 of her sons to 
the altar of liberty, to be sacrificed, if need be, to God in the 
cause of humanity and truth. 

When the history of the Churches is written in the coming 
age, it will be a star of the first magnitude in the crown of 
those Churches which have distinguished themselves in the 
great struggle through which our country has just passed. And 
the friends, at that time. >u those Churches which, prior to the 
Rebellion, or which, during the terrible war, were silent and 
unpronounced, or which sympathized with oppression will won- 
der in shame at the unchristi i conduct of their fathers. In 
asserting this relation which the Church bears to the world, and 
the duty which devolves on those who compose her member- 
ship, we have taken our stand on the highest morality of the 
Gospel, as well as insisted on the ; : lity that be- 

comes an heir of lie aven. 



10 

There is but one important question at this day. Upon this 
every other (urns. All Nation;,] and local politics hinges upon 
it. That question is THE NEGRO! 

There is a general unwillingness here to lake up this ques- 
tion; a very decided dislike to entertain it ; and that, too, on 
account of but one objection. If we say we object because of 
his color, we make fin objection against God, under whose pro- 
vidence he is made a black man. 'Ibis I think no Christian man 
can entertain. If we say it is because of our education, hard- 
ly any would be willing to allow (.hat. Then he would assert 
that prejudice not principle governs him — for prejudice alone 
has been instilled by our Southern education. The real and 
only cause is that it is unpopular, and public .sentiment here is 
so much opposed to any human and religious examination of 
the questions affecting the negro, that as soon as they are intro- 
duced, many are provoked to anger, and we yield to the clamor 
made by them. But this is unwise. THE ISSUE HAS TO 
COME. It may be delayed, but it cannot be prevented from 
coming. The abolition of slavery had to come. God never 
intended it should last forever. If the South had abolished it 
when she had her wealth in lands and treasure, it would have 
been vastly better; but they of the South refused to abolish it. 
But Abolition had to come, and when they refused to allow it 
to come in a peaceable manner, it came with all the horrors and 
desolations of a frightful war. If w r e refuse to consider this 
question, it will only gather strength, and at last we shall be 
obliged to consider it under circumstances more unfavorable 
than the present. 

There are special reasons why we, as Christians, should now 
take hold of the issues involved. As a work of benevolence, 
it recommends itself to our sympathy and charity. Is there a 
people anywhere in a more pitiable condition than he is among 
us. Just look over the land. Four millions of human beings 
now in poverty, ignorance and degradation. They have no 
homes, no money, no land, no stock. They have never been 



11 

accustomed to take care of themselves. The} are improvident 
and short-sighted as the result of their .slave life; and now 
thrown out of all their former usages and habits without any 
preparation for their present state. They are exposed to vice 
and immorality, and their ignorance and destitution render them 
extremely liable to crime. They are in this condition here in 
a Christian laud, whose religion is love to God and man. It is 
saidjit would have been better for them to remain slaves. Well, 
grant that. We ask, are they responsible for their freedom? 
Did they emancipate themselves? Was it not thrust upon them 
by the dominant race? And certainly it is worse than cruel 
now to deny any and all assistance to them because they are in 
a condition which they did not seek and could not avoid. Their 
freedom was by the providence el' God, and that providence 
which set them free demands of us that we do our duty to them 
as to freemen. We must consider the questions growing out of 
the present state of the negro, and do our duty to him or be 
recreant to our obligation to follow every path that. Providence 
opens. If from the hands of the Christian people they do not 
find help, where will they go to get it. They have no friends 
elsewhere. Many newspapers play the part of scavengers in 
gathering up every item that is unfavorable to them and send- 
ing them round the circle of their readers. The animus of the 
Southern people is shown in the riot in this town one year ago; 
in New Orleans, in Memphis, and in breaking up the religious 
assemblies as at Shipley's woods in Maryland. When did you 
ever hear of a native man, south of the Potomac, aiding in 
building school houses for them, and when others do they burnt 
them down. They destroy their churches. They rob their 
teachers, and what is worse, they so foully traduce the charac- 
ter of those teachers as that they are objects of public odium. 
Such treatment they only recei\ e from the dominant race in the 
South. God will not look indifferently on this, nor will he 
sanction us who sit by in apathy and witness it. If we do not 
vindicate these unfortunate people, God will punish us and raise 



12 

up ; ; better generation in our stead, who will. If (here ever 
was a work for Christian charity, it is to be found here; and I 
doubt that a more acceptable thanksgiving could bo rendered 
tinto God, than by prayerfully enquiring "what wilt Thou have 
me to do" in this matter, and then offer our vows to faithfully 
do our whole duty. Another reason why we should consider 
these questions is, the restoration of our country depends upon 
our settling them in the right way. That only is the right way 
which elevates them from their present degraded condition, and 
gives them the rights and privileges of men and human beings. 
When the war was over, wo rejoiced with a great joy. We 
thought it a time worthy of a special thanksgiving, that peace 
had dawned upon our land. As wo thought over the past, and 
realized that the din and horror of battle had passed away; that 
no more would wo sec armies of weary, worn, foot-sore men 
filing past to lay down (heir life on the field. of battle; that wo 
would not hear the roar of the cannon, and the rattling of the 
musketry, when every sound of discharging guns either sent an 
immortal soul into eternity, or laid a human body in agony, 
wounded on the field ; that now again the arts of peace would 
revive; that sectional hate would pass away, and brotherly love 
again unite us. Wo thought that having been relieved of the 
great burden that had kept us back in our career of prosperity, 
all sections would set to work to repair the shattered fortunes, 
and recover the ravages which war had made, and predicted 
that our future would be one of speedy recu;: oration. As we 
thought and felt thus, our hearts swelled with gladness. But 
how different to-day the condition from our anticipations ! More 
unkimlnees prevails than at the outbreak or the close of the 
war, and all the political elements of the land are in threatening 
commotion. The reason is obvious. We are unwilling to fin- 
ish the work which God has assigned us. To leave them as 
they now are is inhuman, and God's controversy with us will 
continue until we shall be willing to work for them that they 
may be qualified for iho new position in which they are now. 



13 

We ought to encourage them in their educational enterprises. 
We should regard those of our own race who have come amongst 
us to teach them as men and women who are engaged in as 
noble a work as those who go to Africa as missionaries. We 
should encourage them in learning the various branches of bus- 
iness which will make them self-sustaining. We must awaken 
their manhood. We must secure to them all the privileges of 
citizens and the rights of freemen. They must have the right 
of suffrage, and the whole code of law must be revised and 
so amended as to give them equality before the law with every 
other race in the country. 

The most general sentiment on the subject is : ''you ought 
not to allude to these subjects, because they will only exaspe- 
rate and awaken animosity." Who will be exasperated? Why 
the very men who for four years tried to destroy the govern- 
ment. Men and women who do not care lor you, but hate you 
because you are not of their party. What favor have they 
shown you? What have you to expect from them ? Have they 
not ostracized you socially, ecclesiastically, commercially and 
politically? Do not they make every offensive demonstration 
of their opinions ? 1 think it strange, when people see how 
they are scorned because they maintain their principles, that 
they should still attempt concesssions for reconciliation. By 
concession we abandon the light. By temporizing and attempt- 
ing to hold on to principle, and yet not declare it. we fail. Po- 
licy will do no longer. It fails to secure the favor of our ene- 
mies and brings the contempt of our friends ; we do not silence 
the one nor obtain the support of the other; but stand in a 
pitiable plight — disowned of both. We must do that which is 
right, fearlessly and fully. Whether it exasperates or pleases 
is nothing to us. We are not called as people of God to take 
care of consequences, but to do faithful service to God. If in 
declaring and maintaining the right, we awaken wrath, and un- 
sheath the sword, it will be found that when the sword is 



15 

sheathed again, and the storm hushed, that the truth will have 
triumphed. We are not to be turned aside from the work by 
any amount of opprobrium that may be heaped upon us. We 
may be met with the well-worn cry of "negro equality." Well, 
what of that. Does the charge prove the fact? There is no 
equality in the sense in which this is intended among the 
whites — and it is hardly necessary to require civil law to re- 
strain persons of duTerent races and colors from an equality 
which does not exist among people of the same color and race. 
If we act as Christian men and women in these matters, in 
view of our obligations to God — not as politicians, but "as shew- 
ing mercy to the poor " — God will take care of our future, and 
our children will inherit from us a land richer in temporal and 
spiritual blessings than any the sun has ever shone on, and our 
returning days of national thanksgivings will resound with the 
songs of the happy multitudes who shall " enter into His gates 
with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise." 



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